On April 22, Earth Day Network (EDN), global coordinator for Earth Day, is launching its Earth Day 2017 three-year campaign for Environmental & Climate Literacy. The campaign is focused on promoting mandatory environmental and climate literacy along with civic engagement and sustainable economic development.

This year's campaign will fight against efforts to silence science and focus on creating and supporting knowledge sharing, community engagement, citizen science and stewardship. Earth Day 2017 will see teach-ins around the world and a March for Science rally on the National Mall that will bring together scientists and supporters to demand that our leaders recognize the scientific truths across all disciplines, including climate change and other environmental issues.

The Washington rally and teach-ins, and other world-wide events will build a global citizenry fluent in the concepts of climate change and aware of its unprecedented threat to our planet and is a major focus of Earth Day Network's efforts leading up to the 50th anniversary of Earth Day in 2020.

"We need to build a global citizenry fluent in the concepts of climate change and aware of its unprecedented threat to our planet," said Kathleen Rogers, President of Earth Day Network. "Environmental and climate literacy is the engine not only for creating green voters and advancing environmental and climate laws and policies but also for accelerating green technologies and jobs."

We need our leaders to institute programs and policies that educate and activate their populations, and leverage that environmental and climate education to support sustainable economies and green jobs.

Using the teach-in concept deployed at the very first Earth Day in 1970, EDN will build an international movement with the following goals:

Educating citizens about the environmental and climate issues they face and creating a world that internalizes environmental values and develops sustainable communities for all people

Mobilizing a global citizenry to proclaim the truth of climate change.

Empowering the public with the civic engagement and public outreach skills necessary to take action for the environment in their local communities.

This Earth Day, EDN is asking citizens around the world to gather with their communities for an Environmental & Climate Literacy Teach-In or another educational project. We are publishing Earth Day and Teach-In toolkits online that lay out the steps for holding a successful event.

In 2020, Earth Day will celebrate our 50th anniversary. Our five-year campaign which began in 2015 continues to build on these efforts.

Our goals by Earth Day 2020 include:

Continuing to build the world's largest environmental service project, A Billion Acts of Green with the goal of reaching 5 billion acts by 2020.

Planting 7.8 billion trees, one for each person on Earth, starting in 2016.

Ensuring global climate and environmental literacy, our 2017 goal.

"As we face the realities of climate change -- unpredictable temperatures, endangered species, droughts, crop difficulties and an increasing number of severe weather events -- ensuring that our children are prepared to become environmentally literate citizens is more essential than ever. We need to integrate environmental consciousness into our children's curricula, so they are able to analyze problems, think critically, balance needs and take informed action," said Dan Abrams, Director of Earth Day.

This year's D.C. rally and teach-in, along with actions across the world, will kick off a week of action throughout local communities to support science across all disciplines.

"Earth Day Network is the largest recruiter to the environmental movement, and works year round to support civic action. 2017 is a historic year for activists all over the world who are uniting to promote climate and environmental literacy and activism," added Kathleen Rogers, President of Earth Day Network.

The first Earth Day on April 22, 1970 activated 20 million Americans from all walks of life and is widely credited with launching the modern environmental movement. Growing out of the first Earth Day, Earth Day Network (EDN) works year round with tens of thousands of partners in 192 countries to broaden, diversify and mobilize the environmental movement. More than 1 billion people now participate in Earth Day activities each year, making it the largest civic observance in the world.

The nation's biggest city, in a far-reaching effort to limit its impact on the environment, is set to mark Earth Day by announcing the ambitious goal of reducing its waste output by 90 percent by 2030.